Distillation or fractional distillation is carried out by heating a solid or liquid and removing gaseous vapors that are expelled therefrom. This can be done while raising the temperature, as each compound boils at a different temperature. However, when working with small amounts of starting raw material or items which have close boiling points, this can be difficult, as multiple compounds get removed simultaneously. Further, a problem can arise when the temperature throughout the distillation equipment is not constant, and some of the vapor re-condenses before being evacuated from a distillation chamber.
The inventor's prior patented technologies involved the development and use of a distillation key to more accurately distill fractions of distillate products. While this was and is a great improvement over the prior art, the ultimate goal is be able to distill accurately and quickly fractions within as minute of a temperature difference as possible.
A standard distillation head tends to have a temperature gradient extending from a bottom to the a top thereof, as the heat source is beneath the distillation head and the distillate is a gas rising up from the bottom. Using an infrared camera, differences in heat were measured on a single jacket (single gas insulated layer) distillation head. A noticeable distance along the side the surface was dispersing heat. A very hot section was found in the middle (substantially or exactly 40% to 60% of the distance from the bottom port to the top port) of a main vertical elongated channel of the head. Both the top and bottom had an extended head gradient away from the center, each being cooler than the center.
As such, one can summarize that during (fractional) distillation, the lowest section has the bulk of temperature loss to the surroundings. This would be expected to be the hottest region as it is most near the heat source, but in practice, condensate sits in the lower area (defined as “lowest ⅓ or ¼″ of the vertical elongated chamber”) causing vapors that pass through this section and become more cooled.
Based on the above tests, and Newton's law of cooling, it has been found that a maximum amount of heat is reached, compared to the input temperature, in any distillation head. The head is exposed to the atmosphere creating a thermal conductive effect from the glass to the air, and even more so if the air is flowing at high speeds such as when using a ventilated fume hood. The core, a central hollow region where vapors pass through, thus also has a maximum temperature with little change based on the input temperature.
Thus, there is a need to find a way to distill with greater efficiency and separation of compounds, while preventing vapors from re-condensing back into the product being distilled.